Election Returns
by icbiwf
Summary: It was just supposed to be a photo-op for the candidate. Show up, kill some animals, shed his prissy-boy image. Speechwriter Peeta Mellark thought it was a complete waste of time, until he saw the tour guide the hunting club sent them. Written for Prompts in Panem AU week day 5: Everlark in 2012. 2012 is an election year...


_Written for Prompts in Panem's AU week day 5 "Everlark in 2012." 2012 is an election year..._

Peeta thought this whole thing was a colossal waste of time. He knew the general idea: Have the candidate photographed killing some animals and displaying his kills, and hopefully it would convince the down-home folks that the candidate was a "real man." He understood the concept fine. He just thought it was stupid. No voter who disliked their candidate because he wasn't an avid hunter was going to be swayed by some pictures of him awkwardly holding some dead birds. But Peeta wasn't campaign manager, he was just a speechwriter. The only reason he was even along on this trip was so he could write up a paragraph about it to add to the stump speech.

Their candidate had abysmal support among people who liked to call themselves "real Americans" – basically rural whites. They saw him as an out-of-touch elitist, an old-money prissy snob. And they weren't far off the mark, Peeta thought, though he still didn't understand why that mattered so much more to them than how he would vote on key issues were he actually elected senator. But for whatever reason nobody wanted to talk about his tax plan, or his position on the war, or his business experience. No, all they seemed to care about was his vacation home on Cape Cod, or his love of windsurfing, or the fact that he hired a driver rather than driving himself.

So here they were at Hawthorne Hunting Tours, hoping to get their candidate some "I kill things" cred. A complete waste of time, Peeta thought, right up until their guides were introduced.

Three people greeted them, a tall man with a confident smile, a younger man following him, and a petite woman who seemed to be fighting a scowl. All three of them could have been siblings for how similar they looked, all olive-skinned with gray eyes and black hair. But something about the woman caught Peeta's attention, somehow she stood out to him even before he knew who she was.

"Welcome to Hawthorne Tours," the tall man greeted them. "I'm Gale Hawthorne, this is my brother Rory, and this is Katniss Everdeen, the best hunter you'll find in the state."

_Oh my god,_ Peeta thought, _It's her!_

...

Peeta Mellark first met Katniss Everdeen on the first day of school at Panem Elementary. His father had pointed her out to him, having been close with her mother when the two were younger. Then later in the day Peeta heard her sing at a school assembly, and he was a goner. He didn't quite understand what he was feeling at five years old, but he knew the most important thing to be done in the rest of the school day was to make Katniss his friend.

Katniss wasn't the most open or accepting person, but living with his mother had taught Peeta how to deal with difficult people and how to say and do the right thing to get to his desired outcome, and his desired outcome was to spend as much time with Katniss as possible. They became close friends, at least as close friends as they could be considering they were five and Peeta didn't dare let his mother see them together outside of school.

They actually teared up a bit on the last day of kindergarten, both knowing that they wouldn't see each other over the summer break. They promised to remain friends, promised that they'd be just as close when they came back in the fall, promised that they wouldn't forget each other over the summer. Katniss even kissed him on the cheek, the first time either of them had shown that kind of affection.

Then two weeks after school ended Peeta's mother decided that she'd had enough of "all these grimy coal miners" and the family moved to Philadelphia. Peeta never saw Katniss again.

Until today. And he was determined to make the most of it.

...

The campaign manager and the PR team and all of the important people quickly decided that it just wouldn't do for their candidate's "real man" image to have him taught hunting by a small woman, no matter if she was the best hunter in the state or not. Katniss was relegated to following with the pack while Gale and Rory handled the real hunting work.

This suited Peeta just fine. While Gale was showing the candidate how to hold his gun without accidentally killing anyone, Peeta approached his childhood friend. "Um, hi, Katniss?"

Her head whirled around so quickly that her braid flew over her shoulder. "What do you want?"

Peeta did his best to smile and offered his hand to shake. "You might not remember me, my name is Peeta Mellark."

She gaped at him for a moment before speaking. '"Peeta? Peeta from Panem?"

He couldn't help but grin. "That's me," he said, but couldn't get anything else out before he was wrapped in a tight hug.

"Peeta! Oh my god, I can't believe it!"

For his part, all Peeta could do was return the embrace, and keep repeating the name, "Katniss. Katniss."

When they talked, it was like no time had passed. They told each other everything that had happened to them in the intervening twenty years. She told him about how her father had died in a mining accident, how her grieving mother had moved them away from Panem and the memories it contained, explaining why Peeta couldn't find her there when he went looking years later. He told her about how his mother's verbal abuse had turned physical after the move to Philadelphia didn't turn out to be everything she expected it to be. She told him about how her mother, after six years as a virtual zombie, had killed herself on Katniss's eighteenth birthday, leaving a note saying only "You're old enough to be her legal guardian now." He told her about how it was his mother taking her eyes off the road to hit him that caused the accident that left him with a prosthetic leg.

She told him about moving to the small town of Seam, how she began hunting for food when her mother refused to work, how she met Gale Hawthorne in the forests around Seam and how they had become close due to their similar circumstances. Peeta tried to contain his jealousy when she spoke of Gale, but she could see it, and he could see that she could see it. They could still read each other so well.

They didn't even realize the tour was coming to an end until Gale interrupted their conversation. "What are you two conspiring about?" They looked up to see the film crew and photographers packing up and Rory collecting everyone's weapons.

"Gale!" Katniss said with a bit too much surprise in her voice. "Um, Gale this is Peeta. Do you remember me talking about him?"

Gale eyed Peeta with open suspicion. "No."

Katniss rolled her eyes. "You remember, my friend in school who disappeared over the summer break?"

Gale's eyes clouded in confusion. "You mean the guy from kindergarten?"

Yes!" Katniss said triumphantly. "This is Peeta."

The suspicion returned to Gale's eyes as he snaked an arm around Katniss and pulled her to him. "I'm Gale. Her boyfriend."

"Yeah, she mentioned," Peeta said, with what he hoped was a friendly smile.

Peeta thought his chance to talk to Katniss had ended, but luckily the campaign manager came trotting over. "Mr. Hawthorne! Mr. Hawthorne, can you come over here for just a moment? We want to get a few final shots of you two together."

Gale grumbled a bit, but he complied, leaving Katniss and Peeta alone again.

"It looks like I'm going to have to go soon," Peeta said. "Can I call you sometime in the second week of November?"

The question threw Katniss off. "Huh?"

"Well, I'm going to be pretty busy for the next 65 days," Peeta explained. "And then there'll be a few days of campaign hangover. But by the second week in November I should be back to normal, and I'd really love to continue this conversation." He debated saying the next part, but his heart won out over his head. "I don't want to disappear again."

Katniss cast a nervous glace over at where Gale was taking pictures with the candidate. "I'm not sure if that's a good idea."

"Here." Peeta took out his notebook and scribbled down his cell number. "Here's my number," he said, holding it out to her. "If you want to, call me in nine weeks."

Reluctantly, Katniss took the paper. "Nine weeks. That's how long summer breaks are at school."

"Except now you know how to get ahold of me, so it's up to you whether or not I disappear this time." He could hear the campaign manager yelling his name. "That's my cue. Gotta go." Throwing his last bit of caution to the wind, he gave her a peck on the cheek before hurrying to catch up to the rest of the campaign staff. He turned to find Katniss staring after him. He waved once, and was gone.

...

Katniss was about nine-tenths asleep on the couch when the doorbell rang. Prim had the election results on the TV while she was studying for her nursing school midterms, but Katniss hadn't been paying attention, opting to fall asleep instead.

She wasn't quite awake when she heard the voice from the doorway.

"Oh my god, are you Prim?"

What was he doing here?

"I'm sorry, you don't know me. I'm an old friend of your sister's. The last time I saw you, you were not quite two, I think. Um, is Katniss here?"

Katniss exited her living room to find Peeta Mellark standing in her doorway.

Katniss really wasn't sure if she was ready to talk to him yet. "Aren't you supposed to be busy tonight?" she asked, gesturing toward the TV that was still chattering with election returns.

Peeta waved his hand dismissively. "Nah, my guy's gonna lose by ten points. I wrote the concession speech this morning – actually I wrote most of it last week – so I don't have anything else I have to do for the campaign."

"So what are you doing here?"

If Katniss's abrasive attitude was affecting him, he didn't let on at all. "Can we go somewhere?" he asked.

Katniss cocked an eyebrow. "This isn't Philadelphia. There's not a lot open around here this time of night, except the dive bar."

"I passed a park on the way over here," he said. "Maybe we could go there and talk for a while?"

Unable to think of a way out without flat kicking him out, Katniss agreed. She grabbed her jacket and the two walked silently to the park a few blocks away. Without discussing it, they both eschewed the bench to sit on the grass and look up at the stars.

"You never see this in the city," Peeta said. "Too many lights."

After a moment, Katniss asked, "How did you find my house?"

"On the campaign, I have access to the state voter database," Peeta said. "Though once I knew you last name, I think Google would have been enough."

They lapsed into silence again. Weirdly, their silences didn't make Katniss uncomfortable. She didn't feel like they were struggling to make conversation. They were perfectly fine not talking and merely sharing the night.

"So what do you normally do the night after losing an election?" she asked at length.

Peeta chuckled a bit. "Usually, the staff gets really, really drunk. Partly to drown our sorrows, but mostly just in relief that it's over."

Katniss considers this for a second. "And what about if you win?"

"The same. Replace 'drowning our sorrows' with 'toasting out victory' and it's the same. Though sometimes a winning campaign will pay for the booze."

Katniss laughed at this, and Peeta laughed with her. Everything felt so easy with Peeta. Everything felt so _right_.

"I broke up with Gale," she told him abruptly.

Peeta was quiet for a long time. "I'm sorry," he finally said.

"It's not your fault," Katniss told him. "Gale and I... we weren't right, not for a long time. He was a good friend, he was there for me when I desperately needed someone. But I'm not sure we ever should have tried being more than that."

"I know the feeling," Peeta said. She gave him a curious look, looking away from the sky fir the first time since they started speaking. "I had a friend in Philadelphia. Her parents loved the city so much they actually named her Philadelphia, but we all called her Delly. She was the first friend I made in Philly, and we had fun together, but it just wasn't the same, you know? We did everything from make mud pies together to go to senior prom together, but we never had that connection. The whole time, in the back of my mind, I was wishing she was someone else. And it ate her up, cause she could tell. We knew each other well enough that she could tell. I don't know if she thought I'd grow out of it, or that we'd grow closer with time, but by the time we were going away for college she was just fed up with me. And she had every right to be, I had basically strung her along for over a decade, pining away for someone else the whole time."

Katniss couldn't respond. _He feels the same way I do!_ she thought. She wasn't sure she was ready to handle this. The boy she'd tried to forget about her whole life had suddenly reappeared, and he felt about her as strongly as she felt about him. For the first time she was poised to have a relationship that she would actually care about not screwing up, and the prospect frankly terrified her.

Then Peeta finally turned away from the stars to look at her, and looking into those blue whirlpools he called eyes she felt all her fears melting away.

"So have you decided yet?" he asked her.

"Decided what?"

"Whether or not you're going to call me next week."

Katniss thought for a moment, and decided to have some fun. "No, not yet."

Rather than protesting, or trying to convince her, Peeta just smiled at her. "Well, while you're mulling over your decision, can I take you to dinner tomorrow night?"

"Okay," she said, smiling back. "I'll allow it."


End file.
